March 2021-July 2021
Application Deadline: February 28, 2021
Join the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) for a series of free monthly writing workshops in Spring/Summer 2021! Workshops will be taught by teaching artists from the Afghan diaspora.
The Project comes off the heels of AAAWA’s “Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later” multimedia exhibit, which used Afghanistan’s centennial as a guiding theme to explore the ongoing consequences of foreign intervention and ran from 2019-2020 at the ReflectSpace Gallery in Glendale, CA.
Rooted in an anti-racist decolonial politics, the Afghan Literary Futures Project is designed to cultivate a unique literary space for Afghan Americans to study, create, and workshop Afghan diasporic writing in community. Over the course of the 5 months, we’ll poll participants on types of support they would like for their writing (i.e., publishing, zine-making, etc.). Each participant has the opportunity to grow in a group of 14 other emerging writers in a long-term creative community and meet with potential editors and mentors. While the workshops will be conducted primarily in English, we encourage multilingual expression. Prompts can be translated and workshop participants are encouraged to write in whichever language they choose and/or are most comfortable expressing in.
We encourage you to bring your whole self: there are no extensive writing or reading requirements.
WORKSHOP DATES
There will be five workshops on the following dates from 2-4pm Eastern Time: March 28th, April 25th, May 30th, June 27th, July 31st. Please keep in mind that all events will be held remotely over Zoom, in Eastern Standard Time.
ELIGIBILITY
The Project is open to emerging writers from across the Afghan diaspora, both inside and outside of the United States. All ethnicities, religions/spiritualities, and genders from within the Afghan diaspora are welcome.
Applicants will be notified on their application status in mid-March.
DEADLINE TO APPLY
Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 11:59 pm EST
This workshop series is made possible in part by a grant from the Poetry Foundation.